German Youth Institute: Director demands the right to vote from birth

Munich - The director of the German Youth Institute, Sabine Walper, has spoken out in favor of voting rights from birth. People over 60 years of age have more influence in elections than younger people, said the professor of education at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich in an interview with Berliner Tagesspiegel.

The right to vote from birth is a way of shifting the weight. "We will still have to fight a lot before the right to vote from birth prevails. That is why I am in favor of lowering the voting age to 16 as a first step."

The psychologist rejected the objection that adolescents lacked maturity. "Young people do get involved politically, but often they do not use the usual instruments that a democratic order provides." The closure of schools to combat the corona pandemic led to many young people, in some cases considerable gaps in their education.

Walper relies on the new coalition
The new federal government should counter this problem, among other things, by expanding all-day schooling. "If the focus of education is shifted more from the family to the school, it encourages children who get less stimulation at home."

In this context, Walper looks forward to a possible government made up of the SPD, FDP and the Greens, referred as the "traffic light coalition".

"A traffic light coalition is an opportunity for young people and families." The German Youth Institute describes itself as one of the largest social science research institutions in Europe.

Lowering the voting age has been discussed in Germany for years. Most recently, the youth of the Greens attracted attention by demanding that children have the right to vote.

Source: Junge Freiheit